Bush Official Contemplated Curtailing First Amendment

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Among the slew of Bush-era documents released by President Obama yesterday was an October 23, 2001 memo in which John Yoo, a deputy attorney general in the Office of Legal Counsel who also famously made the case for torture, suggested the possibility of suspending freedom of the press and speech in response to the 9/11 attacks. “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully,” wrote Yoo. Because you can do anything you want if you write it down in a memo first. [Newsweek]